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Challenges of Writing Fantasy (and How to Avoid Pulling Out All Your Hair)
Last year, I began my work-in-progress: a fantasy about a struggling actor who stumbles into a parallel world. Not only is the novel my first portal fantasy, but it has some typical fantasy tropes, such as taverns, lots of travel and quests, sorcerers and magics, were-people, etc. Unlike my previous novels, which fall more into…
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Madhushree Das, author of When the Mystic Meets a Starfish
What inspires you to write? The beauty of words and then the blending of that beauty of words into a life-giving line inspires me to write. It often has that call of the soul effect on me that at times the holistic approach of the writing process itself inspires me to write. My writing process…
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Steven Bates, author of Castle of Sand
What inspires you to write? Every story I write has a message, something that I think readers need to hear. Events in my daily life, news from around the world, and interaction with family and friends provide some of the impetus. For example, technological change is proceeding at a rapid rate, and scientific experts can’t…
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Marieke Lexmond, author of The Madigan Chronicles
Do you have a special time to write, or how is your day structured to accommodate your writing? I don’t have a specific time to write. However, once I sit down behind my computer, I work until the words stop flowing. Especially when I write my first draft the story lives in my head 24/7.…
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Ruth Enright, author of Clarionettes
When did you first consider yourself a writer? I have always felt that I was a writer, from childhood onwards. I love trying to capture something felt or seen in a poem, or to write a story and create characters as vividly as possible. As soon as I could read I felt that, whatever else…
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Robin Farella, author of Chronicles of Asadore
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? I chose the genre of fantasy because it is one of my favorite genres to read. I love getting lost in an epic fantasy. The world you build as a fantasy writer can be as fantastical as you would like. I was able…
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Sevv E., author of Perfectly Peeled Orange
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? I chose to write literary fiction because I was, and still am, obsessed with the sense of growth a character can have in this genre. Do you work with an outline or plot sketch, or do you prefer to let a general idea…
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Matt Duff, author of A Secret to Die For
What inspires you to write? From a young age, I had a love of reading and writing and would regularly exceed word counts with school essays. I had always wanted to have a book published. My vocabulary, spelling, and grammar was always top of my class. In secondary school, I got moved up a set…
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Geza Tatrallyay, author of Arctic Inferno
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? I first got interested in the thriller genre when we were living in Vienna, where the movie The Third Man, one of my favorite films, is set and is still featured a lot. I thought it would be fun to write a modern-day…
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Ashley Brandt, author of Coyote
When did you first consider yourself a writer? I didn’t consider myself a writer until I published my first book traditionally! Even then, the idea of being considered an author seems surreal. Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre? Over the course of my writing career, I have dabbled in…
Waking Writer
By Berneta L. Haynes
From the Editor
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